Translation: He put us on the hot seat once too often, so we had to can his ass. But don’t worry, he’ll end up working for the Archdiocese in St. Louis again. And if that doesn’t pan out, we’ll find a slot for him in some think tank or agency. We Republican high muckety mucks are loyal to the other big shots. We always find a wingnut welfare slot for our recently disgraced.
That’s what Matt would say if he dared. Not that he does dare, but, in fact, he came perilously close to being honest. When reporters pressed him to say whether he had fired Martin, he started out with, “Ed Martin resigned.” (And he’s a wonderful person, blah, blah, blah.) Translation: Change the subject; I’m not answering that question.
But reporters continued to press. After they had asked the question four times, Blunt finally said: “If you’re confused, that’s my intent.” Impressive. That’s more plain speaking than I would have expected from him. It’s almost as if he didn’t want to flat out lie, but considering his track record, that would be puzzling. This late in the game, why get finicky about a little fib over firing Martin?
Whatever. However the governor wants to explain (or not explain) it, Martin’s gone. Too bad in a way: The man had a talent for getting his boss in trouble, and he will be missed. He was one of those family values people without any civic virtue, one of those abortion moralists who believed in lying, underhanded tricks, one of those people … who got caught at it.